January 2007:Off the island of San Cristobal January was a month that brought generally calm seas most of the days. Many days were flat and some were rarely more than a 4 to 5 foot chop. Water temperatures remained an average of 81 to 84 F on all the banks we fished near and far. The water was clear blue everyday we fished throughout the Southern part of the archipelago. There was plenty of life in general seeing many dolphins, birds feeding and balls of bait.

The fishing was not particulary hot except on a bank 73 miles North of port. On the closer banks 2 to 5 raises per day was pretty much the norm for stripes and a few blues mixed in. However the Northen bank was a long run but well worth it with raises averaging 15 to 25 and fishing an average 5 to 6 hours only!

Angler Jefferson Morrow released his first striped marlin on fly and caught several on conventional. All the groups caught stripes and they average 180 to 250 lbs during January. A total of 73 stripes were raised in 13 days of combined fishing between 2 boats with 23 stripes and 3 blues and 1 black being released. January was a slow month by Galapagos standards.

February 2007

Much of the same patern continued in February as in January. Water remained an average of 82 to 83 F. Seas were much calmer and coloration was stil clear blue.

The fishing remained slow in the closer banks but raises were averaging a little better with 4 to 8 fish being raised on average. Some days we raised over 10 marlin but still short of the remarkable numbers we are accustomed to. The far bank North produced consistant raises of 15 to 30 stripes per day and an occasional blue. However giant bigeye tuna were consistantly sighted almost everyday fished on the far bank. The big eyes were averaging 200 to 300 lbs judging by the fish seen and caught. The was a woper reported to be near 500lbs by a boat from Salinas but we could no verify it. However we saw the bought fight the same fish for over 4 hours.

In a total of 23 days fished combined by two boats there were 112 stripes reported raised and 36 released. 5 blues raised and none released. 4 bigeye tunas over 200 landed, two of which we caught and weighed at 270 lbs by angler Rich Adler and one at 300 lbs by Thomas Nouhan. Must I mentioned part of the bad hook up ratio was due in part that we were fly fishing half of the time. Notable mention were the 5 stripes caught and released by angle Tom Leatherbury in 6 days of fishing with 20 lb tippet. Oh and by the way his rod broke on a record size fish the last day which we eventually caught, photographed and released.